The Globe and Mail reports this week that the ITER nuclear fusion project has been approved for $12.8-billion USD. Although the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has been in the planning and development stages for more than ten years, it is well supported by most of the world's leading countries that include the U.S., China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.

DailyTech previously reported that the ITER project last met in Belgium, where the project was discussed for international support and funding. The main goal of the ITER project is to counter the effects of global warming and other environmentally harmful waste products that result from using fossil fuels. According to the ITER group, a nuclear fusion reactor will be able to produce energy by harnessing the same source of power that gives life to the sun.

The approval of the ITER project was accomplished at the Elysee Palace in Paris, where French president Jacques Chirac noted that "the growing shortage of resources and the battle against global warming demand a revolution in our ways of production and consumption." Many of the world leaders and leading scientists believe that nuclear fusion will be one of the primary sources of energy by the end of the century.

The first ITER reactor will be built in Cadarache, Provence. According to the report, the European Union will be funding 50-percent of the project while the remaining countries will each fund roughly 10-percent. The reactor is expected to create some 10,000 new jobs and take roughly eight years to build. 400 scientists around the world will manage the reactor and a demonstration power plant using nuclear fusion will be up and running by 2040.

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